How to use 3 montiors on 1 card?

Gareth

Active Member
Hey all, do you know what I could get to use 3x 19" Widescreen LCD monitors each at their native resolution at 1440x990 on 1 graphics card? I do not mind if it splits the Windows Desktop to 4320x900 or uses them as independent monitors. The card I want to do this on is a Radeon HD2900PRO.

Many Regards
Gareth
 
There are only two ports, so you can only have two monitors connected if you want ot use extended desktop. I believe you can by splitters which will allow you to connect two monitors to one port, however they will both display the same image.
 
If you have a Foxconn mobo, you might have the 'Dual Monitor' option in your bios to enable you to use the video output on your mobo, and the video card.. which would give you 3 outputs.

I have a foxconn mobo that came from an Acer T180 in one of my rigs and it has this option.. works beautiful with my 7600GT :)
 
oh, no, I have an ECS motherboard (AMD 770 Chipset). I heard about a Maxtron splits it across 4 monitors off 1 card? Has anyone heard about this and how much would it cost? I cannot find one anywhere which is for sale.
 
oh, no, I have an ECS motherboard (AMD 770 Chipset). I heard about a Maxtron splits it across 4 monitors off 1 card? Has anyone heard about this and how much would it cost? I cannot find one anywhere which is for sale.

yes, you can get Matrox cards with four heads, but it's very expensive and low/mid performance. If your not much of a gamer, the Matrox cards or graphics products might still suit you, stil a bit expensive. Matrox offer all sorts of multi-display adapters/cards/graphics but these are just for simple task, and will never do in a gaming system. Matrox Graphics Product Page

For gaming, you'd be better off buying a nice powerfull card like the 8800GT and get a secondary graphics card. You could have the 8800GT run one screen, to game with, and plug your other monitors to the secondary to have your multi-display setup.

EDIT: Oh did you mean Maxtron or Matrox? Could you link the product you were speaking of?
 
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Yes, I meant Matrox, it was a typo on my behalf, Its the Matrox Triple Head 2 go. I will consider the other option, would it be possible to use just 2 monitors and stretch it across using the standard control panel?
 
Yes, I meant Matrox, it was a typo on my behalf, Its the Matrox Triple Head 2 go. I will consider the other option, would it be possible to use just 2 monitors and stretch it across using the standard control panel?

Absolutely, almost all modern video cards now come with dual-heads, so dual-monitors is no problem. If you want three, or four, you can always add-in an extra video card to run those screens extra screens.

EDIT: Is this it? Now that I look at it, I think it simply splits up the image so that your graphics card sees one big screen. That will work, however I don't think the monitors will be in multiview mode, but rather in span mode (So a window will stretch across instaid of staying to one screen, freeing up the other screens for more windows. See the link in my sig). And as for gaming, you'd have to run really high resolution which is difficult to render for a graphics card. So like I said before, this is better for work than play (even for work it kinda sucks because of it being in spanned rather than multi-display.)
 
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Yes, it is that. I play a lot of Microsoft Flight Simulator, so the triple display gives it a more of an accurate view of the 3d cockpit. But I have found out 2x Widescreen 20" is basically wider than 3x 19" Standard. So stretching it across would be ideal for Flight Sim, but other stuff, I am not too bothered about. What option would I use so it could stretch across when needed?
 
Yes, it is that. I play a lot of Microsoft Flight Simulator, so the triple display gives it a more of an accurate view of the 3d cockpit. But I have found out 2x Widescreen 20" is basically wider than 3x 19" Standard. So stretching it across would be ideal for Flight Sim, but other stuff, I am not too bothered about. What option would I use so it could stretch across when needed?

In Span mode, windows believes that your monitors are one big screen, as opposed to multiple screens. In Span mode, windows will run full screen program across all monitors.

However, in span mode, if you open a window, it will also take the full array of screens, so you would not be able to put them side by side, unless you restore down and resize the windows manually. In Multiview mode, the window will open on one screen, so you can maximize them to your monitors side-by-side.

With a dual-head card, you can accomplish both span mode and multiview mode. Triple 2 go is, I do believe, only span mode. If you get multiple graphics card to achieve three or more monitors, you can only span mode monitors that are connected to the same card.

I'd just like to add, that gaming in dual-screen is not as great as you might think. With only two screens, whatever happens in the middle of the game is split in two due to the fact that monitors are side-by-side and therefore there's a gap in between the screens. For only two screens, it would be better to simply get a nice big screen to play games with, and a smaller cheaper monitor for multi-tasking. With three monitors, spanning games is great, but not possible without a quadruple head graphics card, or products such as Matrox's Triple 2 go.

Flight Sim however, supports multi-display, so it works in multiview mode, no need to span. But, the extra screens are used to move control panels over and cannot render 3D content, see you only see the Virtual cockpit on the primary display. This info is based on my experience, (my big monitor is connected to my powerfull card, and two smaller are connected to a weaker card, this configuration may have cause Flight Sim to only use my small monitors for panels, with black backround), it might be able to use dual-heads to span (not talking span mode, span is also a word use meaning stretching across screens) the game on one card, and use any secondary graphics for panels. Triple to go will work, but your graphics card might have a hard time with the high resolution.
 
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if you don't want to do SLI to have 4 slots available and you have onboard video, you can try connecting it on both slots on the card and one on the mobo. there is a chance with driver issues though
 
if you don't want to do SLI to have 4 slots available and you have onboard video, you can try connecting it on both slots on the card and one on the mobo. there is a chance with driver issues though

You're not making much sense! your saying if he had two cards, that he could use one card to run two screens, and onboard to run the third, and not use the second card?

First of all, no one ever mention SLI,
Second of all, who said Garethman!!` had two cards?
Thirdly, Garethman!!` never said he had onboard
Fourthly, running three screens on two cards is way better then running three screens on one card and onboard



hmm, I think what you where trying to say, is Garethman!!` could use one card to run two monitors, and onboard to use the third. That's not a bad idea, but your quite right about the chances of driver issues. But it's like what I was saying about having multiple graphics card. Not to mention the poor performance of onboard.
 
oh to clarify, i was saying if he DIDNT want to spend the money for a 2nd card, then he can try to use both slots on his one card and the 3rd monitor connected to the onboard video. this is the cheapest way i can think of, but that's ONLY if he had onboard...
 
Unfortunately I do not have onboard, and I only have 1 PCIe slot, so, what I am going to do, is get a new motherboard with 2x PCI express sockets, then, ill get another Radeon HD2900PRO, Get the one I am using now to power 1 screen, and the new graphics card to power the other two screens so I can stretch it across 3x 20" Widescreens.

Thanks for everyone's help.


Edit, I never noticed that my name has that ' in it, I wonder how that got there :-/
 
oh to clarify, i was saying if he DIDNT want to spend the money for a 2nd card, then he can try to use both slots on his one card and the 3rd monitor connected to the onboard video. this is the cheapest way i can think of, but that's ONLY if he had onboard...

ah that makes sense! :P

Unfortunately I do not have onboard, and I only have 1 PCIe slot, so, what I am going to do, is get a new motherboard with 2x PCI express sockets, then, ill get another Radeon HD2900PRO, Get the one I am using now to power 1 screen, and the new graphics card to power the other two screens so I can stretch it across 3x 20" Widescreens.

Thanks for everyone's help.


Edit, I never noticed that my name has that ' in it, I wonder how that got there :-/

Sounds good, but prolly the most expensive way to go.

You could buy a PCI graphics card to power your secondary screens if you change your mind about buying a new mobo. Infact, that would prolly be better since with two HD2900PRO would only span for games on two screens, so one of your cards aren't doing much more work then what a crappier PCI card could do. This also means if you do want to get that motherboard, you'll only need a crappy PCIE card along the HD2900PRO. Do you understand why?
 
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Indeed, Ill have a look at what the PCI cards are on offer, Or would it be better just to get a 28" Widescreen at $499?
 
Ive decided to get the triple monitors, would my Radeon x1950xt and Radeon x2900PRO work o.k together?
Thanks for all of your help so far.
 
Ive decided to get the triple monitors, would my Radeon x1950xt and Radeon x2900PRO work o.k together?
Thanks for all of your help so far.

Sorry, I don't know if they would, I have Nvidia cards, I just know Nvidia works well with multiple GPUs. However you may be able to contact ATI, or just make sure you're able to return what you buy.
 
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